


Mercury - Estowick's Last Word

by Inthetardis2



Series: Mercury [1]
Category: How to Train Your Dragon (Movies)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-23
Updated: 2017-04-30
Packaged: 2018-10-23 04:23:07
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 11,501
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10712100
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Inthetardis2/pseuds/Inthetardis2
Summary: Based in the How to Train Your Dragon world, a world where Dragon Hunters are as real as dragons, Operation Mercury has begun and is Nadrig's final chance to prove herself to the Hunters. Also, Estowick's past is revealed to his friends and enemies when something is awoken beneath. He must give up his past, his most treasured secrets in the name of - Mercury.





	1. Prologue

"If we don't get the Mercury over to Berk's Docking Systems before they do, we have not only lost the battle, we have lost the war," screamed Viggo Grimborn, leader of the Dragon Hunters to his 'desciples'. 

"Nadrig, you are the keeper. You've run into the boy before. He's no threat in our our eyes but according to you, he has something hidden, correct?" queried the Armstrong.

"He does. I will collect the dragon in three hours, be prepared," her Russian voice pierces the air like a talon or a mace.

"What do you mean: collect, you haven't got Mercury yet, have you? We are relying on you to win this war verses Qu.E.R.Y. Nadrig. You fail this job, you won't live to see another. I hope you have a plan to remove it, you life depends on it". 

 

"Oh, I do." 

 

As Estowick wanders the corridors of the ship, peering behind every door for his opponents, he thinks back to Nadrig. How she died in the eyes of Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the III, then once again, for real on Credit's Island, or The Isle of Gille in his own eyes. He felt so guilty for months after. He couldn't teach his classes for an entire year, having to get his spouse to teach them for him, Cressida Selfovet. At this point he fell to the ground and began to weep. The water came seeping through his eyes like blood to a wound.  
Suddenly, from around the corner he is spotted by someone. They rushed to his side helping him up before he was shot in the back and he fell unconsious to the floor once again. 

 

Now, now. We are getting ahead of ourselves. This happened three hours after the meeting of the 'Deciples' of the Dragon Hunters, each supporting their own 'firm', battling in the marketplace to be the best Dragon Hunters in the Archapelago. 

 

Nadrig stormed out of the meeting preparing the long-boats to set the sails in the opposite direction of Afar, or Icestorm Island. 

"Change of plan, we leave NOW," her voice so subtle yet harsh, controlling her minions to do whatever she see fit. 

 

"TO THE HOME OF ESTOWICK," she yells, "again". 

 

***

"Mornin' class!" 

 

"Mornin' Mr -" the class pause as they realise that they still are obnoxious to his surname. 

 

"Yep, that's it, just Mr.'ll do for me. Now, today we are going off subject to a dragon lesson, should 'ave brought Fishlegs, eh?" The class all smirked and chuckled at his joke. 

"Sir, what dragon are we going to see?" mumbled the voice of Patrick the Profound, as he now likes to be called. 

"We are going to see The Leviathan of Afar, the BOA, The Beast of Afar, the Holy Grail, the controller or as I've heard some of our enemies call it, Mercury". 

***

Nadrig stands on the bow of her ship, staring into the waters of Odin's Footpath, thinking of the first time she met Estowick, just when he was a boy, and he doesn't even remember it.:

It was the day of the attack, Nadrig was twenty years of age, sixteen years before these current events took place on the mighty day we now call: Pancake day. No, it wasn't named after these events, silly. 

Nadrig was just another Dragon Hunter, being paid for a job. Who knew that this was the day she would 'earn' the promotion she would one day betray. Shells were flying across the village like shooting stars, but ten times more dangerous. Groncicle after groncicle were being tied up, along with speedstingers, skrills, the lot! 

Nadrig, being naive at this job, knew that her salary would increase by as much as squished cavern crasher to its normal size if she did one thing- exterminate of the heir. The heir being (Nowadays) Estowick the Enthusiastic Selfovet (the IV, but we'll get to that later). From all of the smoke and the ashes she saw a silhouette of a terrified young boy, ten years younger than herself, fleeing to one of her side's ships.  
"What's your surname, boy?" she enquires to the lad, with a folded handkerchief over her nose and mouth to block out the fumes.

The boy stares, petrified. His voice shaky, he manages to mutter: "Selfovet, I think."

Her short, obnoxious, life flashed before her eyes as she realises that he is the one she must kill. But there is one problem- she thought the 'heir' would be an adult in his fifteys, not a ten year old who has done no harm. She couldn't kill a boy! What had he done wrong? 

"I will make a deal with you, what's your first name?"

"Peter," he mumbled after a long silence. 

"I am going to make a deal with you, Peter,our lives depend on it". 

 

Her train of thought wandered off of the topic as the wooden boards of the vessel crashed upon the shores of an island, with a sign pointing east, stating: AFAR, THIS WAY. 

 

"We are here."


	2. Part 1/2 - Plans and Passageways

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Deserting their ship, leader and private head off onto an abandoned land in search of a new weapon while Estowick and his class descend into Afar's cave systems when he realises something big.

"This is our first stop," states the lilac haired Nadrig, ready to depart from the boat, while the rest of her crew looks at her solemnly, wondering what she is doing. 

"Ma'am, this isn't Afar, you do realise, don't you?" questioned Charles, private to Nadrig.

"Of course I do. If i didn't know what I was doing, would I still be here?" she states as the rest of her shipmates look at each other nervously, eyes shifting from place to place every few seconds.  
"We get off here. Continue over to Afar. John, I leave you in charge for now. Charles, follow me," she lit a match and inflamed the casque made of either deathsong amber or glass as an oil lamp. 

Minutes passed and the ship was gone and out of sight while our little dragon hunting friends headed North East of this rock in the middle of the ocean. 

"If you don't mind me asking, ma'am, where in the name of the Black Death beneath us are we going?" 

"Where are we going? That my dear friend is for me to know and you to not know, okay?!" she snapped.

He nodded. 

Charles, too, remembers the attack in this instant of crossing terrain which looks like it's been trampled on by a dozen catastrophic quakens. 

He was on the bow of the boat. He saw that they were approaching the east-side of Afar. He closed his eyes and breathed in the pungent, kick of smell that was salt-water. Then the beautiful smell of raw fish from a fishmonger's reached his nostrils and he smiled. Despite the absence of Charles' nose, he could still smell like the Red Death a gronkel.   
He swerved around, his coat blowing into his trousers in the harsh gale and witnessed the masterpiece. A dark green chain attached to the ship, which was interconnected with six other surrounding ships, three to the left and three to the right. However, all seven of these chains reached down into the dark, breathless soul of the sea. 

"It's alright, girl. We'll be there soon, then you can come out for a while," he softly spoke to the wake of the vessels, standing beneath the torn flag with two blood red daggers facing downwards. His ship was one of the legendary sisters of The Reaper.

***

"Class, watch your step, that's it. Now we've all got something warm on, because the wind that comes out of these tunnels can often cause harsh frostbite and has been known to kill," warned professor Selfovet.  
"Yep. I lost my Aunt Trudy in here ya' know," shouted Cressida from the back of the crowd.  
"Of course,he he, poor old Auntie Trude," the teacher said with a smile, recognising the inside joke between the two of them.  
"Interesting fact class: these pieces of pottery have been here since before I left Icestorm, or Afar as it was called and I still call it", explained Estowick still walking though the sharp cold.  
"What do you mean by 'before you left Icestorm', sir?" asked Jane.  
"Don't you know?! This guy was a hero!" exclaimed history fanatic Susan Tup. Who was obsessed with the history of people she knew.  
"He was the one who stopped the Dragon Hunters by closing up the secret passage in the mouth of the Groncicle statue in the village which nobody knows about on the day of the attac-" the entire class stared in amazement.  
"Shouldn't of said that, sorry," realising her mistake.  
"It's okay Sue, they were going to find out eventually. But what was that about a passageway, I've never heard about it," comforted Cressida.  
"I was in the library, the one in the middle of the ocean, the original. I was looking at the archives of Afar and came across a page about you. It was ripped and it started like: Estowick the Enthusiastic IV of Afar leapt into the mouth of the limestone beast to close the secret passageway which leads to the BoA, heroicly- then it ended."  
"Care to explain, sir?" came a harsh voice of Est-y's spouse.  
Estowick just stared forward, as if he's been fired at by a flightmare.   
"Come on," she prompted.  
Estowick still stared into the abyss and sat down on a nearby rock.  
"Everybody take a seat," he finally blurted out.  
"It was the day of the attack. My mother told me she was going to hideand I went to look on the horizon for the enemy. There were seven ships. All connected by a dark green chain which sloped into the ocean. They were carrying something. Something big. Hours passed and everyone was either hiding, had fled to other islands and the rest had died. I knew what I had to do. My responsibility was to lock the Gold door that we all know. I entered the treasure room and I saw the button, or what I thought was the button. I pushed it and the pedestal with the lens disappeared and another one came up. I brought it up to the light, looked through it and I saw what else I thought I better do. I did what the diagram showed and the mouth of the groncicle opened. I climbed through and it led deeper and deeper into the island. I read everything written on the walls, I learnt so much about my own island. Then I reached rock bottom. There it was, in all of its sheer beauty, a room. A room which i can't remember much of except for the fact that it was beautiful. Plants and flowers draped across the walls with a golden pedestal centrepiece and on that an object. Then i went closer to the main attraction. The bottom of the lake and all of its secrets". 

***

"Come along! Biggest day of the year today! We have to get busy. We have the final food supplies coming in before winter. Today has to run as smoothly as possible or else we will all starve!" yelled the temporary Berk Docks manager. "Reduced to this, eh? We save the entire dragon race and this is the gratitude we get? Great, isn't it Archevold. You know I'd have a heart attack if you answered me. He. It's a lonely life," Simon Speaker told himself and his scuttleclaw, Archevold at Berk docks.

"The trade ships will arrive in three hours, be ready!". Simon only did this job once per year becuase he didn't trust anybody else at all. He was a teacher of history at the School of Dragons and he was one of the best ones there was. He had had some adventures in the past but not any that were very publisised, although our good friend Estowick knew about them. Something to do with a disease that could wipe out all of the dragons. Just a normal Thursday afternoon.  
The sun beat down upon their foreheads as they all think of how ironic it is that they are stocking up for winter in this blistering heat.   
"Quickly! If the paths arn't clear then the food will get eaten by the dragons or Fishlegs or both on their way to the village. If we don't get just one of those ships not everyone will eat at Snoggletog! Just ONE ship, ONE!"

"Hey, Sie, why the stress, we can always go fishing for more!" came the naive George from around the corner.   
"Becuase it's not just food, George. I thought you'd got it into your mind that there is more to life than food?" he replied with a smirk.  
"What do you mean, it's not just food?"

***  
"Quickly Charles! There's only two and a half hours until the ships arrive and we have to get to Berk docks with the Mercury," Nadrig moaned as they struggled across the open plains of- somewhere.  
"It may help ma'am if I knew where exactly we were headed. Couldn't we just stay on the ship?" queried the Private.  
"If you must know, we are at Dragon's Edge, I needed to get something" she stated cold and hard.  
"Dragon's Edge?! But that was-" he was cut off.  
"I know. But what else do you do with an abandoned island than to hide stuff on it?" she chuckled for the first time in front of Charles which he then consequently smiled.  
What is she after? Charles thought to himself. What else could we possibly need?! Then as they diverted past a large boulder, Charles saw it, parked in a small cove, where it looked as if it were washed up, which it was.

"How did you get it here?!" he exclaimed in excitment.  
"I didn't, it just ended up here and as I was walking past one day, there it was, then the plan fell into place. Come on, let's go and get it up and running!" she ordered.  
"What? How? We need a dragon! A big dragon, too," he pointed out.  
"Oh, that's not the only thing I kept here for safe keeping. Ever since this home of the Dragon Riders was destroyed this place has been a wasteland for looters to keep their loot. It's such a vast place, there are thousands of hiding places! At around the same time as this, I had taken over The Platinum Bullet's base and in its lagoon, i found an egg waiting to hatch at the sea floor. Once it did, I let it grow, then when he took his base back I took the adolescent with me and left it here, chained up. Then when this thing came along it was like a miricle!" she talked him through it.  
"It WAS a miricle," they both chuckled as they got to work.

***

"But, how could you?!" threw Cressida, "You know my censored for the knoledge of the floor of that lake, Est-y! And you're telling me there's a way to view it without using one of Hiccup's death sentance garanteed inventions?! Why didn't you tell me?"  
"Mostly, becuase I forgot. A lot of what happened to me that day was and still is a blur. I can't remember much but every now and then it comes back to me. I never think of it, so I never remember," he slowly proceeded to bounce back. Although this may seem to have calmed things down, the argument continued for several minutes.  
"WILL YOU TWO SHUT UP!", yelled a voice from the crowd, "-Thank you."  
As the voice's owner came through the students eyesight was caught.  
"Egg?" queried Cressida.  
"Cress," the two embraced in a hug.  
"Hya mate! We thought you were supposed to be on a buisness trip!" came Estowick.  
"I was, until I realised that the trade deal from the Shivering Shores trading company were doing their 'Winter Sell Out' deal with Berk. I know! All excited an' everythin'! Anyway, I told 'em to drop me off here, get some Iced Amber-aid and head off with the cargo to Berk. Anyway, what were we squabbling about?" explained Eaglemoss, old bestie of Est-y.  
"Apparantly there's a secret passageway that goes to the bottom of the lake," sniffed Cress.  
"Oh yeah, didn't you know about it? That used to be my place of worship!"  
"Am I the ONLY person who didn't know about this until now?!"

Minutes passed and the class were getting bored out of their socks.  
"Can we start now please sir?" asked Susan Tup.  
They did start.   
What Estowick wanted to show them was how if he dropped a stone into the lake, nothing would happen. However, if he dropped a stone covered with the smell of dead fish into the lake, small bubbles would be seen rising from the depths of the bed of presumably sand that lay there. Untouched.

"Woah!", shouted Sue at not the sight of the experiment but the dragon she saw on the other side of the lake, "is that the dragon you saved from the Reaper?!". Now the entire class' attention was on the dragon.

"Yes, yes it was. Come here WHD! WHD- it stands for Witching Hour's Demise. Such creativity! Anyway, he was owned by the Dragon Hunters for years and I'm not sure if he's young or old. You see, sea dragons like this, start off small, grow to an enormous size then begin to shink when they get old. He's probably old though. When we met, I'm sure I'd seen 'im before-" Estowick stopped once again in his tracks. Eyes wide open. Staring into the void.  
"Sir?"  
"Urm- Susan, when you looked up the archives of Afar, what was the description of the dragon that attacked Afar?" sprung a question from the professor to a student for a change.  
"It was a very dark green, black and blue, creature which was extrordinarily fat and short with strangly shaped wings, kinda like you're dragon sir, just- bigger," she stopped as it hit her.  
"The dragon I saved, was the dragon that killed my family?!" exclaimed Estowick Selfovet (The IV but I'll explain that later), "the dragon I took from it's unescapeable cage was the one that Nadrig was talking about?! The dragon that I saved from torture, was The Dragon Hunters mightiest weapon?! The Leviathan?!".


	3. Part 1.5/2 - Intermission

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Breaking up the pieces, this chapter shows the modern-day counterpart of Estowick as he begins to read his final words.

February 28th, 2017.

Now, I know that this may come as a slight bit of a shock but every single story written about Estowick I am writing in the present day. I am not writing them about Estowick, I'm writing them about his descendant- Andrew Selfovet. He is the one who has been reading Estowick's memoirs, which were often unfinished. I am telling you this story as to show you how Peter Selfovet found about the truth of his past. All the other stories of Estowick were acts of plagiarism translated into English by me. Don't worry, I do have permission.  
If you do wish to read all of The Archives they are on Wattpad under the title 'The Archives'

It was finally the day. After several years of searching, the twenty-six-year-old Selfovet was about to discover his ancestor's final word. He had spent month after month attempting to track down the final one. He went as far as to go to Vienna and America- the land of Potatoes. He lived in a cottage on an island East of Iceland and West of Norway and had been to all of these places and more to discover the endings of Estowick! You see, whoever wrote his memoirs, be it him (Not this one, obviously) in third person or Eaglemoss or Cressida or anyone else, they NEVER finished them. The only completed ones were this and 'A Secret Organization', the rest all end with nothing. 

Out of all the places in the world, it was in The Metropolitan Archives in London. 

As Andrew get's off of his plane, enters a Taxi, he suddenly imagines, as does his wife, the song 'London Calling' by 'The Clash' to be playing. You see, in almost every film or programme when they go to London, this song is always playing as if it's a stereotype used to identify when a character enters London. They pass Tower Bridge, The London Eye, The Houses of Parliament.  
"Fun fact," said Alex, his wife " the name Big Ben, is actually the name of the bell, inside the clock tower. Also, London Bridge isn't actually the original London bridge. The original is in some other country, somewhere."  
They discussed this for a few moments, passing each and every Tube station, Elephant and Castle, Canary Wharf, and finally Farringdon where they turned a corner, exited the vehicle, paid the driver and left.   
"So, to the Archives, then, eh?" said Alex.  
"I s'pose so," he said with a huge grin upon his face, seeing as this was a birthday present.  
"I'm finally going to find out the ending. Then that's it. It's over," he blurted, still with that smile.  
"But there's still the endings, isn't there. I mean, all we got was the ending of 'A Secret Organization' and that ended with 'im dying. We never found out how he survived. They might have that 'ere as well, ya' never know!" she explained.

Nearing, the doors opened to reveal a red desk with curved edges, lot's of people buzzing around and sitting on tables and eating their lunch, it was wonderful.  
This really is London, Andrew thought to himself.  
"Hello. We have an appointment," Alex stated to the woman at the front desk.  
"Name," the woman queried with a drone in her voice.  
"Selfovet," the husband and wife said in unison.  
"1:30? Yes, there you are. If you could just take a seat here, please. We'll be right with you," commanded Shirley, Andrew acknowledged from her name tag.

Minutes went by and the married couple were chatting along like it was just another day.  
"Thank you," he said.  
"You've been wanting to know about him since you were a tiny lad! How could I not bring you here?! Plus I've always wanted to pay a taxi ten pounds more than needed just to go sightseeing. My treat to myself," she joked.  
"You do know that I paid for that taxi, right?" they chuckled.

"Mister and Misses Selfovet?" came a voice from behind, "We are ready for you."

As they walked through short, carpeted corridors, the person who came for them started talking, " I'm Jerry, by the way. You looking for the Afar files, yes?"   
The couple nodded eagerly.  
"We've got the recorded, 'final' one. Of course, there's been so much confusion of which one came last, hasn't there? I mean, in Outcasts' Achievement he is thirty-odd and has a daughter but in this one, nothing said of that and he's twenty-six. Nobody knows, but I trust this one. So why are you two here?"  
Alex and Andrew explained that he was a descendant and wanted to find out more about his ancestor.  
"Of course! Should have guessed by the surname, obviously! This one isn't very long but it explains a lot. And it isn't at all biased."  
They proceeded to discuss the matter of confusion between the memoirs until they finally reached the archives. They saw an all matter of filing cabinets and boxes. There was a grey table laid out in the centre of the room and on it were a desk lamp and a book, a very tattered, brown book.   
"Do you know its name?" inquired Jerry.  
"No, what is it?" asked Andrew.  
"As far as we know, it's called Mercury."  
"Mercury? What in the name of Thor is Mercury?" they said, astonished.  
"You'll see," he teased with a slight smirk.   
They put on the gloves as commanded and opened it up to the first page.  
' "If we don't get the Mercury over to Berk's Docking Systems- '  
they began to read.


	4. Part 2/2 - Section A - A Leviathan's True Identity

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Beginning before the Final Battle of Afar and ending with a revilation of all, Estowick's memories return as he opens up the passages which have been closed for decades.

So, here we are. The final part to the final words of Estowick The Enthusiastic Selfovet (The IV but we'll get to that later) The last chapter of the last fanfiction I will ever write on the SoD forum. And it's gonna be a good one, I hope. Well, wish me luck, it's 3am - the Witching Hours of writers!

"Heive! Heive! Heive!" yelled the Dragon Hunters on the seven boats, commanding each other to pull on the chain, lifting whatever may be on the other end closer and closer to the surface.  
"Drop anchor!"  
"Drop the anchor!"  
"Drop anchor!"  
And so continued the pattern throughout all seven vessels.

"Really soon, girl. Really soon," the Charles from the past had said, talking to the beast he withheld below. An all-powerful, aging, shrinking-yet-still-huge beast. The Leviathan*.  
* Now the official term for a Leviathan is 'a large sea creature' and has an alternate name, however this slave to the Dragon Hunters was known only as 'The Leviathan', it's blue-white flame could penetrate any form of metal or rock, even the dragon proof kind.

"Wave the flags, call the other ships forward," he commanded.  
Sixteen Years Later  
"Heive! Heive! Heive!" history repeated itself with Nadrig and Charles trying to drag the sand banked vessel closer to the shore.  
Deciding that it is in the perfect place, the two head off into the distance, once more. 

***  
"'A' Team! I want you all on FULL guard, we can't have any disruptions today!" commanded Simon, who was standing next to the controls for the crane in Berk Docks.  
***  
"It can't be," Cressida soothed Estowick as he sat down on the floor once more.  
"It just looks a lot like it," she continued to try.  
"No, Cressida! The dragon I have loved and cared for for years was the one who anialated half of my village! I knew that I'd seen him before, no wonder he was locked up!" blasted the teacher.  
***

"So where's this dragon, then? The one you withheld from birth?" pondered Charlie.  
"In another cove about half a mile away from that one. I thought she should have passed it by now, but the test isn't working" she explained.  
The pair became bored after the hands on the clock inched around. It came to such an extreme that they almost gave up and how I wish they did. If they didn't all of the following events would not have taken place and things would be totally different today.   
Struggling to stand for much longer the two stumbled across a small shed building. After opening, they acknowledged that it was just all dust and junk and a sparkle of dragon hunter metal. Wait what? Blowing the age off of the item they both smirk as it hits them of what it is.

***

"We are just going to have to continue then, aren't we? There's nothing I can do except, let him go," thought Estowick.  
The class nodded with a slight frown on their faces.  
"Come on then, why don't we just go and see the dragon itself, now I have remembered the passageway?! Come on class!" he declared.  
As Estowick and Cressida enter through the open door Eaglemoss is entertaining the class with anecdotes of his stupid company and his past.   
"So, how do we open it?" questioned Cressida being less angry now and a little more sympathetic.  
"I can't remember too much, just that there was a button on the side of this room," he muttered with a shaky tone.  
The couple felt around the walls for anything at all that could resemble a switch. Questions and answers threw across the room about said activator. Then, a sudden thought popped into his mind, there wasn't a switch to the pedestal, the pedestal was the switch! The still heartbroken man rotated the 'lid' as much as he could, then he lifted it up and discovered that it was on a hinge. The rusty, dragon proof metal scraped as the pair pull it to a different angle to show the opposite side.  
"Now what?" Cressida queried as nothing happened in turn.  
"Hang on, move out of the way,"   
"Say please!" ordered his wife, keeping her manners.  
"Please," he droned.  
As she moved a few inches right she realised why she needed to move. The spotlight that once shone on the lens had been blocked out by the shadow of Cressida. After a few seconds of twisting the piece of shiny metal on the pedestal to reflect the light, it burst across the room into the Viking's mouth in the corner, where it was then beamed out of its eyes and into the village.

"SHUT THE DOOR!" yelled the chieftan.  
"WHAT?!" Eaglemoss replied.  
"JUST DO IT! WE'RE FINE, DON'T WORRY!"  
As he did so, the light showed that it fitted directly through the Groncicle key to the door. This must have reflected it once again, to a non-worldly rock on the other side of the bridge where it finally bounced off of that and into the space where the Key Piece was once. Genius. Utter genius. 

The scraping of the stone could be heard in and outside of the caves as the mouth of that statue opened revealing a staircase that led deep into the Earth.

"I knew it had something to do with the pedestal and button and a lens!" he joked, still distraught but trying to sound positive.


	5. Part 2/2 - Section B - A Leviathan's True Friend

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Introducing our third and final main character of the volume, a supposedly 'dead' enemy finds himself looking for the evidence he needs to disprove what Estowick has told everyone for years.

"Why thank you," said the very British accent to the Hairy Scary Librarian, "You haven't happened to read it in the past, have you?".  
The man shook his head then explained that it was the first time anyone had ever seen it, because they couldn't get into the safe.  
"What do you need it for, boy?" asked the Librarian.  
"Evidence. Just evidence, old chap,"  
"One last thing," he said in his slow, droning manner, "What is your name, for the archives?"  
"Esvivin. Put me down as Esvivin".

***

The rain began to pour from the heavens of Thor as the two of them exited the small coal shed placed on the island with the thing that would change everything for the better and for the worse.  
"Finally!" they chanted in glee as they both blew the dust of the what seemed to be ancient artifact.  
"Do you remember how to do it?" questioned Charles.  
"Of course Charles, even if I didn't, what would YOU be able to do about it?" she naively queried.  
"Well, I did used to be the captain of the entire crew, ma'am. You know, in the first Afar raid," the ageing man stated.  
They discussed this for a long while, as Nadrig was completely unaware of this coincidence.

***

"Come on then class!" ordered Mr Selfovet, "We have a Leviathan to find!".

Estowick went in the dragons cavernous mouth first and what he saw was glorious. It must have taken the ancients centuries to construct this awe-some piece of architecture. And how they managed to hide it all was a complete and utter mystery in the eyes of Estowick. From the mouth of the dragon was a set of circular steps down to a platform which revealed a staircase which appeared to go down to the centre of the Earth and beyond. The cobbled stone staircase formed a spiral in the form that it was square. When Estowick stared into the void below he was amazed by what he saw. At the very bottom of the staircase, he could just see black. It did go on forever.   
"It's not all the way down here," he deliberately yelled to the class, just to hear the echo, "it's on one of the above floors". He was right, the echo was incredible.  
"How could you not remember this?," laughed Cressida.  
"I did wack my head pretty hard that day," he remorsed.  
He encouraged that they should follow him.  
"We've got the rest of the day to find it, haven't we?" he jested.

***

"AAAAARRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHH!"  
Came the Dragon Cry as Nadrig turned the crank, making a noise that all dragons would respond to.  
However, ever since what happened on Dragon's Edge, most, if not all dragons that used to reside there, had left. All except a certain few, including the one that the female, Russian Dragon Hunter had dumped there what felt like decades afterwards.   
Moments later a noticeable shriek could be heard and the sounds of large waves and ripples hit the couple's ears.  
"There!" they pointed and began to sprint back toward the North East of the abandoned Isle.

Minutes had now passed and the two were luring the beast with Dragon Root plants that they had found alongside the Cry.   
"You keep her coming, I'll get the attachment ready," declared Charles. 

To relieve you of pondering for hours on end on what this beast and the attachment was, I'll just tell you. What Nadrig had found years ago was an egg and when it hatched it was an ugly, flat-faced - thing. But as it grew, she could tell what this ugly-duckling would one day grow into - A Shellfire. One of the most treasured dragons the Dragon Hunters ever had capture over. And the attachment? One of the same idea as the one seen on the last Shellfire during the last days of the Edge being fully intact but this one was made for a different leviathan, years afterwards.   
While these two lunatics were attempting to strap the wrong thing to the wrong dragon alone, on the other side of the Archipelago, a classful of students and three adults descended closer and closer to the end, while a few hundred yards away from one of these two situations a man with a long, hooded cape stands, staring up at one of the biggest locking mechanisms anyone has ever seen.   
"Not long now, Mercury, Not long at all," said the presumably DEAD, ex-arch nemesis of Estowick the Enthusiastic Selfovet (The IV, but we'll get to that later). 

In the next millennium, two people sit at a desk on 'Pancake Day' in the London Metropolitan Archives picturing the story unfold as they both stare at each other in shock at who had just entered the final words of their ancestor.


	6. Part 2/2 - Section C - A Leviathan's Reunion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When three Nemesis collide after years of not seeing each other, an idea is spread across the group about Mercury which is soon proved wrong.

"Not long now Mercury," whispered the Infamous Esvivin who was last reported of six and a half years ago in Outcast Prison then a month later had 'died'. No one really knew how he had ended up in prison but EVERYONE and I mean EVERYONE knew how he died. He was poisoned with the saliva of a Venomous Vorpant which took many-a-month to form and finally strike. You see the only antidote for this was the rare 'Potatoe' of legend. And there were a mere three of these in the archipelago as they were purely grown in America- land of myth and legend. However all of this went out of the window as soon as Estowick met eyes with the hooded figure. But we'll get to that in a few moments.

The mechanism that was displayed in front of the enemy was more advanced than he, Mala or Hiccup had ever seen and if a University Graduate with three degrees looked at it today, they would probably just leave it and ask someone else to solve it. However this was NOT Esvivin. He turned every censored, every crank, every cog and every button until he got it right.  
In the room he was in, he was less than half way down the chamber that Professor Selfovet (The IV but we'll get to that later) had only just remembered. It was a long and narrow room with a deep chasm between which had dried up, ancient moss and kelp lying on the ground, wailing for their life to be restored. Then suddenly as our genius 'friend' pushed and pulled two things at the same time, a thirteenth crank appeared. As he wound this he could see a pully system beginning to work. As one pully moved that moved a cog which moved three more cogs which made a different pully work! It was incredible. As the turning began to get tougher, Esvivin Farlough (The Ist, I know, Boring, right?!) witnessed what, in fact he was doing- a small circular piece of metal began to lift from the rest of the gateway, as he did this, more and more water began to flow through the way. The corridor was connected to the lake, the home of Mercury.   
After the 'doorway' which the water was flying through had reached its peak, it hinged itself and the liquid submerged the chasm. It was a canal. An indoor canal. A very big, very deep, very wide, indoor canal. What was it for? He didn't really know.   
He continued to ponder this as he continued to swerve knobs and swirly things and twisty things. 

***

"THAT'S IT! ONE MORE NOTCH!" yelled the newer leader of her sector of the Dragon Hunters.   
The pair panted as they finally finished applying the necessary equipment.   
"Quick, we've not got long left," ordered the old leader of his sector of the Dragon Hunters.  
It was obvious that it was not a perfect fit at all. It was a teenage dragon wearing a titan wing's armour. But it was worth a shot.

As they descended into the waterproof submarine on the back of the dragon the two looked into each other's eyes and hoped. Hoped for a good outcome.

"Come on, you can do it! You may not be as big a Leviathan yet, but you will be soon enough!" one of them prayed to the beast below.

***

"Are you alright now," worried Cress as she tried to look in his eyes.  
"Still a big shock. I mean- He never thought to tell me, when he saw this place?! He can speak Dragonese, and a word of Norse," he said, saddened.  
"Hey, on the bright side, you trained a Leviathan!" cheered on Egg from the back.  
"Not just any ol' Leviathan, THE Leviathan! There's a difference. They just couldn't be bothered thinking of a better name. Stupid Dragon 'unters. Ya' know that's eight one-day Class 10s I've met, now,"  
"Name 'em all sir!," joked Chloe.  
"Alright. A Bewilderbeast, Mercury, a Submarriper, a Shellfire, a couple of Krayfins, that one-which-I-can-never-remember-the-name-of, and The Leviathan," he listed.  
"And the tenth?" They urged.  
"Oh, Toothless," he said calmly.  
"Toothless isn't a Leviathan!" they all argued against him.  
"Just you wait, give 'im twenty years and he'll be twice as big!" he ensured.   
Although disagreeing with him they continued deeper into the centre of the tunnel.

***

Esvivin was, naively, on his final push while Nadrig was within three minutes of Afar while Estowick was about to reach the corridor that would change his life.

***

Seeing the signal, the other Dragon Hunters dismounted their ships making their way into the caves. They felt a sudden chill hit their feet as they waded from the ship to land. Walking through the caves, they expected to see guards and people everywhere. An actual challenge. Instead, they see a large Dragon Sculpture's mouth gaping, completely unprotected. Working together they decide to enter, sprinting down the hallowed well like a Speed Stinger in a slow mood. 

***

Esvivin heard a noise of people chattering away from behind him so strolled back down passed the canal every footstep sharp and echoey. He arrived at the door and exited onto a balcony type piece in the stairwell. 

***

Nearing a wide door, Estowick gallops down onto a balcony type piece in the stairwell.

***

Climbing from near the bottom Nadrig and Charles were somehow heading for the first balcony type piece in the stairwell.

***

The three stared. One in amazement. One in shock. And one in pride.

"Class," Estowick turned to them swiftly.  
"Run!," he gestured that Eaglemoss follow for he knew the other, forgotten entrance.

"Est-y!" greeted Esvivin with open arms, " I told you you should get married to her and what did you do? Good one Est-y! And Charles! I haven't seen you since," he paused," ten years?! And who's the woman? You married as well, are ya'?" he teased. 

"I am Nadrig- Leader of section four of the Dragon Hunters. I am here for Mercury," she stated, cold and harsh, "and we are most definitely NOT married!".

"Me too," cautiously blurted Estowick.

"And me as well! Along with just proving the cowardliness of you and that Dragon Hunter sixteen years ago in The Afar's Final Battle who looked insanely like you, Nadrig, was it?"

Nadrig and Estowick stared at each other, terrified that the truth would be leaked. 

"Anyway, care to join me?" the Brit gestured toward the canal corridor.

As the triad of enemies continued into the hallway, they noticed the fact that the 'canal' was close to full.   
"I am led to believe that behind this metal layer is a wall of glass," he stated as he pushed the final button.  
After doing so, the majority of that supporting wall raised and vanished revealing more of an opening to the canal that just a hole and a wall made of Deathsong Amber, Glass or something else transparent and strong.   
Still trying to work out what was displayed before them, the enemy of all cared to explain, "Just as I thought. Mercury is dead," he gestured to the exoskeleton of the beast. It was a long thing with a strangely shaped mouth, two pairs of wings which curled around its body, presumably only to be used when needed, and a long snake-like tail ending in a scauldron's way.   
One of the main three looked proud.  
One looked shocked.  
And one looked greatly confused.  
"Yep. Dead as a Buffalord. And if I pull this," he tugged on one of the handles," then- it should be drawn in."  
A strong current had forced this mighty beast's body to be sucked into the widened entrance of the canal, giving the triad of enemies a better look at it. 

After consulting for several minutes all five agreed to take an even closer look at a wing.  
After even more minutes, the nemeses finally had the wing approaching them. As soon as one of them pulled it, it fell to dust.   
"This isn't it's skeleton! It's its shell! It must shed its skin so as it can grow!" observed Estowick. Squabbling over this for even more minutes the question came up as to what happens to the shell each time.  
"Well, it eats it presumably," Estowick said, realising half way through what they had just done. 

***

The group of Dragon Hunters retreated as they heard a commotion in the lake.   
"FIRE!" the troops decided as they saw ripples coming from the water, which at the time they didn't realise was the baby Shellfire getting stuck in the gap in the ice on the way into the lake from the outside.  
It let out a tremendous blue light which punched its way through the water and into the village. Arrows entered that part of the water continually, distressing the dragon even more.

***

Deep, deep below what was thought to be rock bottom of the lake, a beast rises, wishing to gain its homemade food. Smelling it out, it is nowhere to be found within the boundaries of its lake as where its shell was now was now locked in the dock with the triad. Anger fulfils the Class 10 as the dragons ancient instincts kick in. One of Mercury's treasured features. If she becomes famished and dying of hunger, a small spark in her spinal chord will light sending transmissions to the brain.

Like the Submarriper, the BOA's mouth begins to open, creating a vortex of water. Sucking in more and more it is suddenly visible to the triad.  
"Estowick! Follow!" someone yelled, escaping the dangerous clasp of the madman.  
Once reaching the surface, the vortex wouldn't repress from stopping. It continued to pull everything in. Its suction force so strong that it was reaching outside of the caves and above the gap in the ceiling, or the 'volcano' as it is mistaken for. Soon enough, the dust and the clouds were being sucked in as well creating a water spout up toward the heavens. This was Mercury's power. It would draw in ALL victims it could with one flick in the back. 

A sight that hadn't been seen for hundreds of years is taking place and it was all the triad's fault.  
After mere seconds had passed Estowick, Cressida, Charles and Nadrig were upon the water-tight ship.  
"RUN!" Estowick shouts in the commotion and noise as Charles draws his crossbow from his jacket.  
As Estowick wanders the corridors of the ship, peering behind every door for his opponents, he thinks back to Nadrig. How she died in the eyes of Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the III, then once again, for real on Credit's Island, or The Isle of Gille in his own eyes. He felt so guilty for months after. He couldn't teach his classes for an entire year, having to get his spouse to teach them for him, Cressida Selfovet. At this point, he fell to the ground and began to weep. The water came seeping through his eyes like blood to a wound.   
Suddenly, from around the corner, he is spotted by someone. They rushed to his side helping him up before he was shot in the back and he fell unconscious to the floor once again.

As I mentioned before. It hadn't yet hit Estowick that Nadrig was dead but alive. Esvivin yes, but Nadrig no. All of the stress and troubles he went through because he had killed someone, and she was till alive.

He was approached by a newfound Allie who helped him up. It was only then that a mysterious, hooded figure let out an arrow from another crossbow which scraped Estowick on the side of his back. He fell unconscious.

Mercury, the Beast of Afar, continued to draw in its food from above the surface with her almighty power as our friend lay, helpless, in a Dragon Hunter ship after meeting his dead enemies. Or dead friends.

TO BE CONCLUDED IN THE FINAL PART:

 

ONE FINAL BOW

 

or

 

A Leviathan's Final Chance


	7. Part 2/2 - Section D - A Leviathan's Last Chance - One Final Bow

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Here we are. The final chapter of Estowick. His final bow, his chance to change everything. With his true past finally revealed, Estowick must face facts and give up all in the name of Mercury.

Let us lay out the story of Estowick's past. Mainly, the Final Battle of Afar, sixteen years before the events of Mercury took place.   
It was a faithful day. The whole village was in darkness as it was still only February and they were all gathered on top, next to the small pond that lay defenseless above the hidden waters of the now named Icestorm Island.   
The soothsayer confronted the chief, who's husband died only weeks before.   
"How do you think he'll react," she asked.   
"Fine. He may only be ten, but he's not like the others. He is sane. He knows what he must do. I have told him. Which buttons to press and which room it is, why do you ask?" She questioned the advisor.   
"Only, that I have a slight feeling that he will do something drastically wrong. It says so in the stars, in the wind, in the rain. In the blackness that lies in the waters. Something will go wrong, as I think you already know," she stared into the chieftan's soul.   
"I know I will hidetoday, Marclieth, but I must do what is best for the beast or else it could endanger the lives of thousands. All of Afar and of the Dragon Hunters," she said, determined.   
"I think you'd better tell him goodbye, my dear. He has a lot to live up to. A HUGE heritage, which CAN NOT be risked," she stabbed. 

The chief walks to her son with a gloomy, depressed face and says, "Mama's got to go, my dear. You know what you must do? Go to the statue, lock the door, push the button, enter the mouth and lock all the other doors, you will be safe there. I'm leaving today, Peter. You will not see me for several years, but when you are a big, big boy, you will come and stay with me, and your Father. Bye, bye my little 'P'," she said tears arriving. 

"Bye, bye Mama," the lad said, naïve of most of the information. 

Several hours later, after the seven sisters of the Reaper had arrived in the unblocked docks, the fight had moved to beyond the other side of the lagoon. Balls of great, white light flew across the battlefield to the opponents, along with rocks, boulders and arrows. As the stories originally go, most of the people, including Estowick's mother were already dead, with only a few left standing and retreating. This is where Estowick made his most mighty move. He went to the gold store, closed the door, pushed the button then exited and approached the dragon's mouth where he stayed put for many-a-moment and when he returned the passage was closed. As he crossed the bridge, he was hit by catapult-fire onto one of their ships which then floated out to sea and hours later washed up on Berk.   
In the years afterwards, Estowick, loaded with gems and gold, continued his life in hating dragons but still owning them. Until he was introduced to Earthquake, his whispering death. After that, he fell in love with dragons, built his own hut in the Training Grounds, where he had his own ship resting in its docks.   
When a new student of the School of Dragons arrives, Hiccup alocates Est-y as her guide until she get's a place in the commons. The night she joined Estowick slept in his ship when a man broke the rope attaching him to the dock and he floated back out to sea. He awoke and thought he was heading back to Afar, but instead found himself in a graveyard of vessels and see's one very familiar one- The Reaper. In the week he was there, he met two imaginary friends, an eel names Steve, his dragon- The Witching Hour's Demise, and saw a man in a gondola, sailing past his camp.   
When his friends came to collect him, they explained their run-ins with a man owning a dozen Whispering Deaths threatening them. Then, once the three tribe competition is started and our friend the Selfovet is chosen to take part, he is abandoned and goes half mad on the fake 'Melody Island'. He is confronted by two dragons and talks to a wall with a certain symbol on it. He goes to the library of the archipelago and meets the Hairy Scary Librarian where he escapes and wins the competition. Once he returns home he goes to his farm which was infested by a beast only to find a mysterious figure standing on its nest. An epic sword fight occurs and by the time it was over, they had realised who they were. Old mates and conrads. Eaglemoss and Estowick.   
After this, an old foe comes back to Berk, seeking revenge with Estowick over something. After this, they are led to believe that he is dead and so continue with their lives.   
Next, a fleet of enemy ships attack the Training Grounds in search of information. They are defeated.   
Finally, Afar is found being sold off as extracurricular activities as an unknown investor pays to have the school expanded. The newly named, Icestorm Island is found and what is remembered of the story of the battle is revealed. And why the village was thought to be ancient was unknown.   
After this, a shape appears in the new chief of Afar (Estowick)'s dreams. The same shape he's seen all around the archipelago on his adventures, even in the Dragon Eye. On his hunt for answers he is taken from island to island and meets a new enemy, Nadrig. Part of the Dragon Hunters. He goes to the Isle of the Xzantium, Neegoling's Quanteerienzic Range of Terrors, the Shivering Shores, Outcast Prison and finally- Credit's Island.   
He is at last face-to-face with the leader of the Organization of the Twelve Triangles or Qu.E.R.Y. The chief threatens to release the Beast of Afar, of which he had no idea existed but it didn't work. A crossbow was drawn by The masterful 'Leader' and an arrow was released. Closer and closer to Est's chest it came. Until he was knocked off of his dragon, plummeting into the smoke and fog of the caldera. The dragon follows and dies of impact. Estowick is dead.   
In the following months, Nadrig is found on Auction Island, desperate after losing her job. She makes her way across the archipelago with something in mind and heads to the new base of the Dragon Hunters- Isle of the Decliment. Meanwhile, Eaglemoss sets out to avenge his friend's demise. He follows one of the OTT's ships which leads to one of the southernmost islands. With scorching waters and lazy sand, the trio (Eaglemoss, Cressida and Ethilia, their new friend) set out upon this jungle to find the legendary- Platinum Arrow. After more and more research, it is discovered the true identity of this commander and Nadrig, too has found him. He is exiled to'the stretch'. A long, narrow path. Left of the ocean and right of the desert. Most Vikings exiled here cannot continue because they go mad on their way, boredom for weeks on end heading for somewhere. If you don't know The Platinum Arrow was in fact, Estowick. He was recruited by the Organization like his forefathers before him. It was his destiny.   
He did make it out and faced Nadrig one last time back on Credit's Island where he killed her. For good in the dark, lonely seas and oceans, never to be seen again, until today. 

*** 

"He's waking up!" One of the two people comforting the man pointed out. Nadrig had dragged him and Cressida into her private 'office' on the ship creating safety for them all.   
"I- I remember. What happened on Afar in the last battle," he stated, depressed.   
"You do?" Queried Nadrig.   
He smiled. 

"Who was shooting at us?" Questioned Cressida.   
"I don't know whether it was Charles or Estowick's friend, Esvevin, was it?" She said as Cress broke into laughter at her interpretation and inside joke. 

Up above, the Beast of Afar was still dragging in its victims. The pottery, the homes, the plants, the dragons all gone. Some blown away like the dragons and the trees but others consumed like the plants and the entirety of the village. 

***   
"Oh come on Estowick! Don't chicken out now! You know what you must do. Mercury will tear down the entire village of Berk if you're not careful!" Came a voice from behind the door. 

"What's he talking about, Mercury's not that powerful!" Stated Nadrig.   
"What do you mean- 'Not that powerful'?! Have you seen what she's doing?"   
"What, just sitting there? Watching us?" She confused the pair as she pointed to the professor's dragon, The Leviathan.   
"Wait. That's what you lot call Mercury?! The Guardian of the Reaper? That's Mercury?! Not the great beast that lies within the depths of Afar?!" Punched Cressida and Estowick.   
"Well, we were told that we were rubbish with names, so we decided to call it- Mercury. After its fire. You know, that dragons' fire can break through ALL metal, including our's?"   
Then everything came into focus. What happened at the Shivering Shores years earlier. Why the Dragon Hunters needed him. Because it was already stolen. 

***   
Minutes passed as they discuss what action they should take.   
*** 

"Esvivin, Charles. We have a proposition for you. If you let us stop the wrath of the BOA, you can have Mercury. Okay?" They proposed. 

Agreeing, Nadrig opened the door and Estowick sprinted out and witnessed the dragon's whirlpool dragging in the fish and the rubble and the rocks from the sky, hoping to the gods that his class were alright.   
He re-entered the statue and climbed to another room which released a capsule containing the emergency food supplies for the dragon which he was just reminded of as his life was flashed before his eyes.   
A dark green box was projected toward the class ten and the storm lowered revealing the final damage. What was turned from abandoned to a striving little town, now looked distraught. This was how the village was found to be 'abandoned' by an archaeologist named Skulder and the rest of the School of Dragons.   
"Now hand us Mercury," the pair demanded. And they did, although reluctant.   
"Hello, my old friend. You are getting old, aren't you? You've shrunk so much," stated Charles leaving for Berk with the remaining Dragon Hunters.   
Esvivin stayed as Estowick looked in pain more and more by the second. 

*** 

After a few minutes of clearing up, they all sat at a table to discuss what would happen next. 

"So, Mercury's not the BOA, see I wasn't even that certain on the plan!" Pointed out Esvivin, "Anyway, so, Estowick. Nice to see you. Do you remember ten years ago you and I met? Well, you know your ship was untied? That was me. You know that man on the gondola? That was me. You know the guy with the whispering deaths, Cressida? That was me. The person who sent the letters from the OTT? Me, again. I'm still part of squadron 3, sector 17, you know. They never took me off of the list," he explained more casually than it should have been.   
"And do you remember ten years ago, you got fan mail? Me. And do you remember that on one of the pieces of fan mail, there was just a splotch of ink? Me. You got a papercut from that, am I right?" He already knew the answer.   
"Yes. I've still got a mark," he showed on his thumb.   
"Well, that was no ordinary ink. That was the diluted venom of the Venomous Vorpent. It won't strike like it normally does within nine months, it will take as long as fifty years. However, this can be sped up by a certain anti- antidote, thing. Enjoy your arrow shot, did you?" He smirked with thin eyes gazing into those of his enemy.   
He broke into laughter.   
"I'd say, you've got about half an hour. In with the arrow was also a cerium which is an antidote for a different drug of memory loss. Care to explain what REALLY happened at the Final Battle, Pete?"   
Estowick began telling, awkwardly, of what really happened and what he had forgotten. 

Let us go back to the Final Battle of Afar.   
After a few hours in the field, the battle had moved itself to the other side of the lake, with only seven deaths so far. At this point the chief thought that she may actually survive this, but she would soon be proved wrong.   
As Estowick did what he was set out to do, he descended the staircase and exited into a room on the left. In this room was a pedestal standing at its centre, holding a deep green ornament. Around the room were many cogs and tables and pulleys and all sorts of things. He pulled the ones he was supposed to pull and pushed the ones he was supposed to push. But he was naive to the fact that this, was the wrong room. As he turned the crank, thinking he was closing the door, a round headed projectile was released inside the lagoon hitting the tail end of the beast who had been unawoken for hundreds of years. Getting up on the wrong side of the bed, this dragon was vamished. Its natural instincts kicking in, it opened its wide, weirdly shaped mouth and began drawing in the water. Swallowing more and more, it created a whirlpool now visible to the battlefield above. The fighting stopped as the chief saw what she had feared would happen- a drastic mistake made by her son. The whirlpool grew to such a size that the water began to touch the skies. A tornado type structure built itself out of the hole of the roof of Afar. Like a ravenous snake, it led up to Thor in fury dragging in plants, animals, homes, dragons, and- people. A ferocious wind circled the caves and the ones closer to the water were pulled in. Estowick, who was then called Peter, left the stairwell with a smile on his face, thinking he had just saved everyone and everything but he was wrong.   
Bricks started flying and the dragon Mercury was once again taken hostage by the Dragon Hunters in retreat back to the Reaper. As the Mother, sister and Chieftain of Afar looked to the skies and shook her head praying to the gods to not hurt her son for what he has done, she was drawn into the motion, pulled closer and closer to the eye of death who was teasing her, telling her to make the most of what she's got now. She looked around and saw everyone being consumed into the waves and into the vortex beneath. Estowick's mother had now died.   
Reaching the surface, Peter see's what he has done after a few seconds of infering. He turned and ran to escape what may happen to him if anyone finds out.   
But before he could board his escape, he hears a voice behind him. Here is where I come to my original point of Nadrig.   
Nadrig was just another Dragon Hunter, being paid for a job. Who knew that this was the day she would 'earn' the promotion she would one day betray. Shells were flying across the village like shooting stars, but ten times more dangerous. Groncicle after groncicle were being tied up, along with speedstingers, Skrills, the lot!   
Nadrig, being naive at this job, knew that her salary would increase by as much as squished cavern crasher to its normal size if she did one thing- annihilate the heir. The heir being Estowick the Enthusiastic Selfovet (the IV, but we'll get to that later). From all of the smoke and the ashes she saw a silhouette of a terrified young boy, ten years younger than herself, fleeing to one of her side's ships.   
"What's your surname, boy?" she enquires to the lad, with a folded handkerchief over her nose and mouth to block out the smoke.   
The boy stares, petrified. His voice shaky, he manages to mutter: "Selfovet, I think".   
Her short, obnoxious, life flashed before her eyes as she realizes that he is the one she must kill. But there is one problem- she thought the 'heir' would be an adult in his fifties, not a ten year old who has done no harm. She couldn't kill a boy! What had he done wrong?   
"I will make a deal with you, what's your first name?"   
"Peter," he mumbled.   
"I am going to make a deal with you, Peter, our lives depend on it".   
"Okay," he murmered, terrified.   
"I will make a deal with you, Selfovet," she starts, "I am supposed to kill you. If I let you go, you will change your first name, you will get a different colour hair, dump the Speedstinger and always say that 'Nadrig' killed the heir to Afar, agreed?"   
The boy nodded immediately, happy to do anything as long he could leave. 

The next few minutes they planned everything. His name, his hair, his dragons. Finally, Nadrig inserted a drug that would make him forget the last few events but no longer be Peter, but Estowick the Enthusiastic.   
And so he became him. An entirely new person. 

"And so, Esvivin. I am the most sorry person on Earth and I deserve this fate. I killed my entire family, your entire family. I- Can't believe I forgot," he attempted to apologize. 

"Very good, and I'd say you've got about twenty minutes left, enjoy them while you can," he teased just as Death had to Estowick or Peters mother years before. 

With that Estowick left, entering the submarine once again. 

*** 

"Man the ships!" Screamed Charles, happy to be in charge once again, "We were going to shoot her anyway after this mission. She knew too much," he explained to his fellows. 

"Get Mercury ready. We need to win this battle so that we win the war!" They yelled with Berk's Docks in sight. 

"Enemy ships sire, coming our way!" Called a docksman. 

"Get ready to fire, people. We can't have this day ruined," ordered the officer. 

"Wait! Sire! Look!," he pointed to bubbles rising from the waters beneath them. 

"It's a class ten! Battle stations!" He prayed to Odin that everything would be okay. 

As the bubbles got bigger and bigger a large wave started emerging, crashing against the rocks and wooden planks. 

"Shellfire! Dragon Hunters! Get ready men," he called the Berk Guard. 

The arrows were ready to fire as a small head emerged from the submarine on the leviathan's back. 

"Hold your fire!" Called the voice, "it's me, Estowick! Simon, don't shoot! They are bringing a weapon! You have to prepare! I haven't got much time!" 

"Alright! Men, hold your fire. He's an allie," said the temporary leader of the docks, Simon Speaker. 

*** 

"But sir. Isn't that-" the soldier was cut off. 

"Estowick. Get ready with Mercury!" Charles called, furious at how hard he was to kill. 

As the ships got closer and closer to the docks, it was obvious to Cressida on what the Dragon Hunters were doing. They were opening the iron grate, withholding Mercury. Estowick could feel death tapping on his shoulder, although he was unsure whether this was Esvivin or Death himself.   
With shaking hands, everything went silent for Estowick, only a slight ringing in his ears. He had mere moments. Still wobbly, he took the crossbow that contained his last Platinum Bullet, used all of his might to lift up his arm and in his final seconds pushed the trigger. The arrow that was released sped trhough the air like a SpeedStinger or a Night Fury and raced passed Charles and all the other Dragon Hunters. In both of their last seconds they made final eye contact with each other both understanding what they must do. The arrow hit the chest of Mercury just as Estowick fell to the ground whispering the same words as when he died before: "Sorry". 

The secret had been revealed and now Estowick was free to meet his mother and father once again in Valhalla along with his dragon. These were the last words of Estowick ,Peter, the Enthusiastic Selfovet (The IV, but we WILL get to that one day).


	8. Epilogue - Afar's Goodbye

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With Nadrig the co-chief of Afar, she gives a careful message to Berk's chief. Later on, however, an event happens of Afar which will change everything.

Nadrig, the new co-chief of Afar arrives on Berk, the day before her untimely assassination. She approaches Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III because she has some 'news' she needs to tell him.   
"It's not big news," Hiccup explained to his nearly-wife, "she told me, but apparently it was important. Brief, but important." 

She walks up the way, passed Snotlout's and passed the arguing of Mulch and Bucket over carrot dressing on fish. She meets the chieftain halfway between Astrid's house and Gobber's blacksmith.   
"I do not have much to say to you," she starts as she notices the chief's almost-spouse peering from near their house.   
The chief explains that whatever deal they may make today, it will be under guidance and consideration of the Afar, Berk, Shivering Shore and Defenders of the Wing treaty which was formed by Estowick, seven months before his death, and fifteen months before that day.   
"It is nothing to do with that. I just needed to tell you to beware Hiccup Haddock, the Dragon Hunters have something big planned for you," she got up to leave, " Oh, and sorry- you won't be able to see Cressida for a few more days, she's gone into labour." 

*** 

Two and a half years after Estowick's child, Cassandra, was born and Nadrig was dead, a ship arrived of Afar while all of its population was away. The Beast had already been released via the canal route Esvivin had found. Seven people exited the ship, all with masks and cloaks on and they headed to the pond at the height of the Island that had seen so much history.   
After this, three dragons are seen on the horizon. Two Timberjacks and a large, bulbous one. The largest lands as the seven people abandon their ship in the caves and climb aboard the Timbers. The leader of them all finally said before departing the island to the two people holding the ropes and chains of the largest dragon, "Members of Qu.E.R.Y. Squadron 3/ Sector 17: Release the Eruptodon." 

With that they leave in darkness, the dragon of whom's name was the Eruptodon and he flew down into the caves and began to feast. Seconds later, all around the archipelago an explosion of fearsome booms and bangs could be heard. A mighty scene of fire and flying rocks can be witnessed by those on the horizon. The mountainous peak fell into the caves and the ancient rooms and chambers collapsed. After a few hours Afar was just a mound of rock, larger than before, but still. Afar was gone for good.


End file.
